A painful time is fast approaching for law firms in the shape of professional indemnity insurance renewals, due up in October. Last week we published a supplement on PII insurance for firm partners – if you didn't get one for some reason, go to our Supplements page to download it – but the one area we didn't cover was PII for limited liability practices. My mistake.

It turns out that this is an interesting area. Our intrepid practice director Mike Gorick wrote a blog a month ago musing about why LLPs are still not quite as popular as firm structures as they could be. Mike said he couldn't understand why firms weren't going for them when they had such obvious advantages.

This blog got a couple of interesting comments, and prompted me to wonder, as I was completely snowed under preparing for the PII supplement that week, whether it was also cheaper in PII terms to be LLP. Turns out 'don't know' is the answer to that.

A chap called Simon Lovatt at United Insurance Brokers in London wrote a comment, saying: 'The insurance industry has yet to really factor in the difference a LLP has on PII premiums, and run-off insurance, and in answer to your question currently it doesn't make a difference.' Ah hah.

One commenter had even gone as far as to say that, had his previous firm gone LLP, a claim that was later made would have been far easier to deal with, and far less scary. But for insurers, it seems this doesn't translate – Lovatt says: 'From the insurers' point of view an LLP should be seen as a higher risk than a partnership, as its members have an opportunity to operate within a corporate body without any significant personal consequences for their mistakes.'

Which I thought most interesting – the security of the LLP might encourage a lack of attention to detail, because the big risks of partnership are no longer there. I don't think I agree with this at all, I've got to say, as I read our SDT reports each week and so often solicitors in 'traditional' partnerships who end up in trouble do so because they've no idea of the impact of their (in)actions.

But it's sure interesting – maybe firms are really being put off going LLP because the perceived benefits aren't being promulgated. Now we just have to work out who should be selling those benefits.